Cryoprotected
by Vysria
Summary: The first step to immortality is to always have a fresh, working body, isn't it? Rated T for possibly graphic descriptions and/or language.


The man fell to the ground. His metal forehead protector was frosted over, as was much of his body. His face was twisted into an expression of pain, pain that had lasted for split-second before his life had been ended.

A boy that could have been no older than the age of 13 stood over the corpse with his hand held outwards. He looked deceptively calm, a slight frown gracing his features, though of course that was not the case.

"You. _Do_. Not. Hurt my sister," he whispered as he turned away from the site. His brown eyes were cold, much like his chakra, daring anyone else to harm him and his family.

"Jack!" He turned around and was tackled by a young girl with brown hair and brown eyes the exact same shade as his. "Jack, you saved me!" He gave a smile in return to her clutches, combing his fingers through her hair.

"I'm your older brother – it's like my sworn duty to do that," he joked, though he was dead serious. She was only seven, and there was no way he'd let her die, not when he was still alive, or ever.

They remained in that position for a while longer, then Jack stood up and picked up his sister. "We can't stay here for too long, you know what'll happen if they ever find that it was me who used a bloodline limit." Faint traces of his chakra would remain in the frozen cells of the man's body – any competent sensor would be able to detect it. She nodded, and they began the trek back to their home through the snow.

Jack stopped. He felt like something would–

* * *

"...Jack? What's going–" Her brother's body lay on top of hers, still and motionless. "Jack? Jack!" She received no response.

"_Jack!_" He couldn't be– No– She refused to believe it. Crimson, warm blood dripped onto her hand. She screamed her brother's name again, tears forming in her eyes. Sobbing, she wrapped her arms around him, sitting up against the tree that he'd pushed her to. No. It couldn't be. Not Jack. No. _No._

_NO!_ Once more, she screamed, an iron grip on her brother's cooling body. Where was the warmth? Where was it?

She glanced in the direction of her home, then back at Jack. She couldn't just leave him! But she couldn't carry him all the way back either! Why? Why was she so… so_ weak?_

The tears on her cheeks were frozen over, but the sting had long since faded. She kissed his cheek and wiped off the blood from his face. Getting to her feet, she looked back at him, then began to sprint to her home.

Her father could help her retrieve Jack, she knew it. There couldn't be another shock. There just couldn't.

That night was the night that her mother died, and she almost did too.

* * *

Kabuto rolled his scroll back up. 12-13 year old male body, check.

* * *

Cold.

It was so cold. And dark, with the air of helplessness lingering in the atmosphere.

She was hungry, too, the grubby bits of food in the dumpster barely enough to satisfy her ever-shrinking stomach. She'd survived, but by that point, she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to.

"Haku. My name is Haku," she whispered to herself. "My brother is Jack. I will never forget him." She repeated the words over and over again, until it became an endless mantra of sounds and syllables._ Neverforgetneverforgetneverforget…_

That was the day she met Zabuza, the man who took her in, made her his precious tool. She could still remember the tall shadow looming over her small, frail body, and how she simply turned her gaze upwards– there wasn't anything to be afraid of, after all. At the very least, she'd be reunited with her family in the afterlife.

He gave her a reason to live. At that point, that was all she needed.

* * *

_It was cold, it was dark, and I was scared._

He couldn't remember much. And what he did, he wished he could forget it forever.

His limbs were strapped down (to a table?) and he couldn't move, no matter how much he tried, his muscles wouldn't obey him.

The man with the unnaturally wide mouth and snake eyes, who looked down at him as if he were an interesting specimen (to him he probably was), who injected liquids and chemicals that made him feel lightheaded and floating, but strangely free, like he was leaving his bonds (but of course he hadn't), until they stopped and then the pain grounded him to reality like a shell that encased his entire being.

Then there were other tests, evaluations of his physical status, conditioning to test his endurance (he remembered being dropped from up high, maybe the top of a tree – he'd been fine and the snake-man looked satisfied), pain reception (he couldn't recall what it had been like, and glad that he hadn't), but what the man had wanted the most wasn't that.

It was his slow, if not entirely stopped, aging.

Looking back, this had been what the man had been the most involved in. The aging of his cells had all but stopped, only working to heal whatever wounds he'd accumulated. And whatever his body needed to heal did so perfectly – no scar, no remnants that anything different had occurred to him – and even then, even in his half-mind state, he knew that that wasn't natural.

It had even been proposed that he had some sort of bloodline that sped up healing, but he knew it wasn't that.

There'd been something else. Something else that had drawn the attention of the man, but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember. It had involved the way in which he'd been found, which he didn't know anything about other than that multiple kunai had stabbed him in the back but that had healed too.

Orochimaru and his damned need for immortality. Ha. He could just go and die.

* * *

Haku was dying, and she knew it.

Laying there in the almost-snowing weather and the ice stinging her cheeks, she consoled herself with the thought that at least she had saved Zabuza. At least one of her precious people would live another day.

A shadow passed over her head. She squinted up at the dark silhouette standing over her. Something seemed familiar…

The figure bent down over her and brushed away a few strands of her hair, smiling. Now she could see… "Nii-chan?" she asked, unable to believe it.

His warm, brown hair and eyes were gone, replaced by the frigid blues and silvers of winter, but it was her older brother, she'd know him anywhere.

"It'll be alright, li'l sis. Believe in me." She closed her eyes, a faint smile on her face. Her brother was here. It would all be alright…

Her brother's ice chakra gently enveloped her body. Her drained chakra coils welcomed the similar signature and allowed it to spread throughout her body, slowly freezing the cells in her body to preserve it and survive the cold (as she would not have otherwise concerning the wounds she'd suffered). As far as she knew, it was an untested technique. But considering that she would have died had it not been attempted, it was fine by her.

Besides, it was her brother. Jack.

* * *

A/N: I think I'm starting too many stories at once for my own good... well.

I saw a program on TV (I think it was from PBS Nova?) talking about how wood frogs could survive winters by using urea and liver glycogen to keep ice from freezing too much of their water-based internal organs. Something like that, search up "wood frog" or "cryoprotectant" on Wikipedia and you should get some stuff on it. Basically, their bodies would be frozen, and their hearts would stop, but they were still alive and good as ever when they thawed.

So I thought, hey, what if Jack could do that? Maybe that's how he gets his immortality. But hey, no one wants to read about that. Man in the Moon and all.

When could Jack utilitize this, then? Maybe someone experimented on him and this happened? But who would be crazy enough to do this, just for something that may/may not work?

Orochimaru. Dur. That dude's always looking for immortality. So he did this to Jack, but there were some drawbacks to using this method, so he scrapped the project and went off chasing Uchiha pretty boy for his body.

But Jack would need to be able to use/tolerate ice for this, though. Ice? Yuki clan.

But I don't like OCs. So let's make him Haku's sibling, and while we're at it, use Haku as Jack's little sister. (AU, guys. Everyone else has already explained why they shift Haku's gender, so if you really want to know, just remember that liars exist and girls probably wouldn't want to be around Gato's goons.)

Yeah. More will detail Orochimaru's experiments and data later, since Jack doesn't remember it all. Nor does he want to. And it's too much to stuff into one chapter.

(Consider this a pre-2014 gift from me to you... in my timezone, at least.)

Enjoy while I attempt to actually write while everyone else is getting drunk!


End file.
